The green-forced “clean-up” by General Electric of PCBs in Hudson River sediments has — to no one’s surprise — backfired. Read more here.
News
Wobbles Cause Climate Change
Regular wobbles in the earth’s tilt were responsible for the global warming episodes that interspersed prehistoric ice ages, according to new evidence. Read more here.
Raw Temperature Data No Longer Available
SIGNIFICANT economic interventions are being planned, that are going to impact on citizens all around the world, based on the premise that global temperatures are increasing. It would thus seem especially important that quality temperature data, the data underpinning the policy, be publicly available.
In fact there are several official temperature data sets and what is publicly available has all been adjusted. Adjustments are made for all sorts of reasons and often multiple times. The number of data bases and the extent of the data manipulation intrigues many amateur and professional statisticians who take an interest in climate change.
Recently statistician and blogger Steve McIntyre was denied access to specific data files at the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in the UK. This Institution holds the longest official records for global temperatures as measured by thermometers. His request was refused on the basis he is not an academic – presumably meaning he is not currently employed by a University. He is a qualified statistician with an impressive career in private industry and various publications. Anyway, one of his colleagues, who does hold a university position, Ross McKitrick subsequently requested the same data and this request was also rejected, but for different reasons.
According to a recent news item in the academic journal Nature, the refusal is because Phil Jones, the director of the Climate Research Unit, is being inundated with requests. A figure of 56 requests is quoted in the article. This doesn’t seem a lot to me. Furthermore, I don’t understand why the director of the institution would be involved in the processing of such requests. Surely there is an army of technicians who can process such requests particularly given the request is for the raw unadjusted data. [Read more…] about Raw Temperature Data No Longer Available
About a Clump of Ancient Black Oaks: Helen Mahr
IN the Sierra Nevada, there are Whitebark Pines, Pinus albicaulis, thought to be thousands of years old now growing at an altitude where seedlings can’t survive winter. So, they reproduce from suckers. Larry Fields told us the story earlier this week.
On the Eyre Peninsula, South Australia, there are Black Oaks, Allocasuarina cristata, also growing near the limit of their range but because of a lack of water, rather than cold. These trees also reproduce by suckering. [Read more…] about About a Clump of Ancient Black Oaks: Helen Mahr
Senate Rejects Cap n Trade
AUSTRALIA’S Senate rejected the government’s climate-change legislation, forcing Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to amend the bill or call an early election.
Senators voted 42 to 30 against the law, which included plans for a carbon trading system similar to one used in Europe.
Australia, the world’s biggest coal exporter, was proposing to reduce greenhouse gases by between 5 percent and 15 percent of 2000 levels in the next decade… Read more here.
Burning China’s Trash
After surpassing the United States as the world’s largest producer of household garbage, China has embarked on a vast program to build incinerators as landfills run out of space. But these incinerators have become a growing source of toxic emissions, from dioxin to mercury, that can damage the body’s nervous system. Read more here. And what about GHGs?
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.